a) Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a high-speed bus system and a method of operating the high-speed bus system using at least one parallel bus and at least one serial bus. Various types of bus system are known, including bus systems that have already been standardized such as the VMEbus, which conveniently has two idle lines which are not used for connection setup or for parallel data transfer (SERDAT and SERCLK).
b) Background Art
The standard parallel VMEbus is described in the publication entitled "The VMEbus Specification" in accordance with ANSI/IEEE STD1014-1987, IEC821 and 297 of the VMEbus International Trade Association, 10229 N. Scottsdale Road, Suite E, Scottsdale, Ariz. 85253, U.S.A., (602) 951-8866.
So-called "message passing" in parallel bus systems is a known method of implementing fast data transfer. However, this known method has serious drawbacks because the parallel bus is occupied during the time required for data transfer and this known method is considerably expensive in terms of hardware.
The task which the invention aims to solve is to create a high-speed bus system which allows a significant increase in the speed of data transfer, in particularly even where conventional bus systems are used, and which can be adapted to suit extremely different data transfer conditions. In addition, the invention is also intended to provide a method of operating such a high-speed bus system.